1. Introduction: Success always brings its attendant problems and last week Paris realised just how great these can be. Long acknowledged as the world capital of fashion, the city has now become such a magnet for overseas designers that its own talent appears to have been lost, overlooked or possibly even neglected. From being a showcase for domestic design at its global best, Paris has become simply the most popular place for displaying international ability.
France has traditionally attracted fashion designers from abroad - after all Worth, the first great couturier, came from Britain - but the sheer size of the current invasion and the inadequate response of the French is cause for alarm in some quarters. As if to highlight the present paucity of local talent, the Paris department store, Printemps, has been hosting an exhibition of some of the finest little black dresses created by French designers between 1920 and 1970. Last week, it was hard to see who their successors might be today.
2. The Japanese Invasion: The first signs of change became apparent 20 years ago with the arrival of a group of designers from the Far East. Their numbers have grown steadily since. Looking at the official schedule of shows this season, among the 90 odd catwalk presentations, 17 will have been given by Asian names. Among these, the best are still the oldest.
Yohji Yamamoto, for example, showed a wonderful collection for next spring/summer with plenty of the new, pretty dressing which has been a feature of all the international shows. Cheeky humour was displayed here by sending out model Stella Tennant, now the official face of Chanel, in a subversive parody of that house's signature suit, its black and white fleck tweed skirt deliberately left unhemmed. Also from Yohji: wonderful, Edwardian style, full length riding coats in black silk taffeta and next season's seemingly obligatory sheer styles in both georgette and lace.
Issey Miyake, the other great Japanese designer based in Paris, showed an altogether less light hearted collection involving complicated wrapping and tying techniques on jackets and trouser suits. Typical here were the cotton tunic tops with floating panel skirts, the latter fastening by an elaborate series of buttons and ties in the style of ancient Japanese ceremonial dress. Definitely not clothes for women who want just to slip on something simple.
3. The New Europeans: For that kind of minimalist ease, the best pieces come from the new generation of non French Europeans such as Ann Demeulemeester Martin Margiela, Helmut Lang and Dries Van Noten, all of whom now show in Paris. Van Noten's collection presented in a derelict warehouse in the city's suburbs defied the ugly surroundings with oriental inspired prettiness: turquoise, Iznik tile prints on long chiffon coats and skirts and gold embroidered Indian silk for wrapover apron skirts worn with trousers beneath. The Austrian Helmut Lang, on the other hand, continued to be defiantly modernist in his collection for next season, very much a continuation of his last show with simple, a symmetric hem sheer dresses and sleek (and slickly cut) black jackets.
4. The French Fashion House Take Over: But it's not just own name labels which threaten the hegemony of French fashion. Over the past couple of years, many famous Paris houses have found themselves run by new designers from a wide variety of countries. Nina Ricci, for example, is now under the direction of Austrian born Myriam Schaefer while Balenciaga's designer is Dutchman Josephus Melchior Thimister. His latest collection was typically spare, with lots of understated trouser suits in powder blue wool, as well as camel viscose knits for dresses and sweaters and draped silk crepe for knee length sleeveless dresses.
Similarly at Cerrutti, Cuban born Narcisso Rodriguez who used to work with Calvin Klein, offered clean cut clothing stripped of all unnecessary detailing. Wrapover, sheer knit dresses to the knee in stone and chocolate were a feature of this show, along with double layer chiffon, sleeveless styles and fine check, lightweight wool pants with the most subtle bootleg flares. Brazilian Ocimar Versolato, who now designs for Lanvin, opted in his own collection for sheer luxury; his transparencies were in the finest silk chiffon, just as his exquisitely simple day dresses (with detailing in the cutting technique reminiscent of Vionnet) came in white silk crepe.
5. The Cross Channel Arrivistes: And then there are the British in Paris, such as Ri fat Ozbek, who showed an all black collection even though it was designed for spring/summer. The colour may have been dark but it was, as in so many other instances, sheer with chiffon and fine knits used for stretch hugging tops and skirts. Vivienne Westwood has announced a return to London next season, so for what was to be the last collection she presented in Paris, Westwood was sparing with novelty but generous with fine tailoring. Her romantic vision was positively low key in comparison with that of John Galliano, whose circus theme show included references to gypsies, Russian peasants, Spanish toreadors and Indian temples.
6. Galliano Goes Where?: All last week, the talk among fashion cognoscenti in Paris was of John Galliano and his compatriot Alexander McQueen and their rumoured conquest of two of France's most august fashion houses. Since the start of the year, Galliano has been designing for Givenchy but the speculation was that his appointment as head of Dior would be announced in the next few days, while McQueen was signed up for Givenchy; both men would also continue to produce collections under their own respective names. By Saturday night, fresh rum our was suggesting that this scenario might not materialise, but so much talk about the future meant that the last show Italian designer Gianfranco Ferre produced for Dior was largely overlooked.
7. France Equals Dull: One of the biggest problems facing French fashion is that so much of it is not very imaginative and inclined to depend heavily on past success. Ungaro produced a collection of silk tweed check jackets and floralprint silk dresses that could have appeared any time within the past 20 years and seemed to show no awareness of the changes which have occurred in the interim. Yves St Laurent, on the other hand, chose to retreat from the whole business of twice yearly shows and held a series of private viewings in his atelier. Again, what was on display was summarised by one viewer as little more than a greatest hits collection: the navy blazer, the belted safari jacket, the black smoking jacket for evenings - these have all been seen many times before.
8. Where Is The Next Generation?:
What obviously worries the French is that their country now appears to produce precious few new young designers, while other nations seem to have talent in abundance. To help foster the next generation, each season the organisers of the preta porter shows sponsor two young designers to present their collections. But if Frenchwoman Fred Sathal is indicative of what lies ahead, then Paris will have less and less space for its own people. Sathal's show full of ugly, asymmetric tunics, skirts and trousers in muddy coloured satin, was so clearly inspired by the work of London designers such as McQueen and Hussein Chalayan that it appeared devoid of any originality or fresh creative flair.
9. Les Enfants Terribles Turn Middle Aged: Members of what were, for many years, considered the younger generation of French designers have now long passed their youth. JeanPaul Gaultier is 44, Christian Lacroix 45; both showed strong collections.
Gaultier's range was based on a series of trompe l'oeil pieces which appeared to be mannish flared trouser suits with shirts and ties at the front but then revealed themselves as one piece catsuits which unzipped down the back. Lacroix served up his now customary confection of boldly contrasting colours and patterns in coats inspired by the 18th century pastoral novel, Paul et Virginie, and kimono style, wide belted short coats. Sonia Rykiel has been around for so long that she could celebrate with this collection the 6.000 different sweaters designed by her house since she started in the business. More of them formed the basis of her show last week; they came out short and skinny, with horizontal bands of colour on black and as three quarter length dresses and belted tunics.
10. Where Next For French Fashion?: Last week demonstrated the crisis facing the French fashion industry more clearly than ever as foreign designers showed they had greater imagination and awareness of what the current market needs than did the Paris houses. It emerged that while Italian labels such as Gucci and Prada, also American names including Calvin Klein and Ralph Lauren, are enjoying a boom, their French equivalents are suffering from a recession in demand, with not just clothing but also accessories and perfumes witnessing declining sales.
Today sees the Chanel collection being shown. Although admittedly this is designed by a German, Karl Lagerfeld, he has lived in France for the past three decades and is, therefore, representative of that country's fashion industry. But the Chanel show will also indicate whether Paris still has an active role to play in the future or whether it is fated to become just a convenient city in which designers from around the world can gather and show how much better their fashion is than that of the French.